Monday, March 2, 2015

Wuuuuuurk

Did not get the job I interviewed for last week. Meh. It was not a dream job by any stretch, it was just the first place to reach out and contact me and bring me in for an interview since I started this most recent round of possible employer-hopping. Admittedly, it would be pretty hard for anything to compare with last year's whole whoop-de-doo where I thought I had an inside track because a friend of mine was personally referring me, and the perks of the potential new gig sounded amazing, and I came in for multiple interviews which I thought all went very well, and then just ended up with a "we're looking for someone with a bit more experience" rejection. Since my level of experience was apparent from my resume, and not contradicted by anything I said in my interviews, I didn't believe that for a second, and instead nursed a certain conviction that they needed to fill a quota of interviewing at least X number of people, which I counted towards even though I was never in serious contention. I actually got a similar vibe this time around, but at least it was quicker and less painful.

One of the weird things that came up during last week's interview was the fact that the new company is actively partnered with my current employer. And the manager doing the hiring was very up front about not wanting to poach people, which I found perfectly understandable. The hiring manager further assured me that this was not a deal breaker and not even necessarily a problem, because if they wanted to hire me they could either work out some aboveboard understanding with my current employer or possibly even simply have me reassigned from my current contract to the partnership contract while remaining an on my employer's payroll, which honestly sounded appealing to me since I would have the same benefits, the same salary, the same cumulative years of service, but I would also have the opportunity to do more on a daily basis, pick up some new skills, take a half-step towards a bigger career change down the line, &c. But, again, it didn't work out. I don't know if the whole no-poaching thing, big deal or not, wound up being more trouble than it was worth, or what. But I'm back to square one on the job hunt.

I just wrote a whole long paragraph about where things stand now regarding my current contract, and then I realized I already did that a week ago and so I deleted the redundant return to the same territory. Nothing has changed since that last post, no updates, no movement, just a slow and steady approach to the point of no return where all of us contractors (I think there are something like 40 of us on this contract?) will find we can't get into the building unescorted and can't log on to the network at all because all of our dingle-dongles have expired with no work authorization to replace them. As I've said, that actually coming to pass seems unlikely. But if it does, I'm not even sure what would happen logistically. Would we all come into the office and get visitor badges and sit at our desks doing longhand paperwork and/or nothing? Or would we be told to stay home until the contract issues were sorted out and we could be re-credentialed? The options are limited, and none of them seem right. Of course, it makes very little difference to me. Show-up/Do-nothing is kind of my default mode here most days anyway, and I'd be perfectly happy to stay home if that was the official directive, as long as I got paid.

I do hope the contract gets renewed, which will not signal the end of my job hunt but rather provide a bit of comfortable time-and-money cushion, allowing me to continue looking around for something better and to hold out for something quite significantly better, while still keeping a roof over my head and not suffering through any other major disruptions. I admit that at times I have run the scenario in my mind where the contract falls through and my employer lets me go with some amount of severance, at which point I could look for a job full time, with more urgent motivation, and go on interviews without burning through vacation days, and so on. It has a certain appeal, much like wishing idly for some minor health crisis requiring hospitalization has a certain appeal in terms of mandatory bedrest and whatnot. It's irresponsible and selfish and arguably outright stupid, but I'm only human.

In more positive work-related news, my wife has recently accepted a new job offer which she will begin some time in the middle of April, and she tendered her official resignation at her current place of employment. The new gig will have her working more and longer hours every week, but it also pays significantly better, and it gets her out of the crazy stress-minefield her present position has evolved into, so all in all it's a big net plus. I will update as warranted as the spring rolls along, but at the moment I'm happy for her and proud of her and thought that was a pretty good note to end on after all of the negativity up above. There's always something to be thankful for.